Excited about telling people you're adopting??

I don't know about you, but I am so excited to tell people that I am adopting. I have found a few websites that offer t-shirts, stickers, magnets, etc. to those of us who want to announce our adoption "pregancy". I will put new category onto my sidebar with links to the sites I have found thus far...If you can think of more that I am missing...please let me know and I'll add on :) I have worn a few of the t-shirts so far and have had GREAT reactions from people! Happy shopping moms-to-be!

One more thing...

I have posted a link to the Provide-n-ce gallery on the side bar. It's a fair trade art gallery that is run by a Vietnamese nun, now living in Denver. She is an amazing woman and is currently in Vietnam. She has just started a blog to track her trip and I wanted to share it. There isn't a lot of dialog on the blog, but a lot of wonderful pictures. She flew there on the 13th of Feb. and was able to enjoy Tet. Her entire journey will last 6 weeks. I hope you enjoy seeing the photos as much as I am!

http://provide-n-ce.blogspot.com/

A Snowy Weekend = Sewing Projects

Too snowy to go out this weekend, so I hunkered down and sewed! I made three dresses for Ella. The brown one still needs buttons, but not bad for the first time I've ever sewn baby dresses :)















I am now hooked...I already bought fabric to make two more! It's hard not knowing what size to make...I hope these will fit her...I'll either do them with sandals or sweaters I guess :)

Yesterday was a good day!

Our agency called yesterday...our dossier came back from the Sec. of State and was being sent out to the Vietnamese Consulate today! Hopefully it will be translated within the next few weeks and be on it's way to Vietnam!

Another exciting item...My mom and I met with a small children's store (that currently carries unique toys and clothing) yesterday and she is going to carry our crib bedding in her store! We are hoping to have it set up in the store and ready to be sold by the end of April. She is even going to do a story on us with a link to our website on her quarterly newsletter. God bless my brothers...they have been working tirelessly to get our website up and running. We'll keep updating it with improved pictures. Check it out if if your interested... www.generationsinstyle.com


Here are the latest photos of Ella's bedding on her own crib in her own room.












Hope all is well with eveyone!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY WITH YOUR LOVED ONES...TODAY AND ALWAYS!

Dossier to Secretary of State

Our dossier was sent out today to the Sec. of State! Next stop is the Vietnamese Consulate and then onto translation and Vietnam! I hope Tet doesn't slow things down too much!

Something new...

Just thought we'd add some colored pictures and brighten up the look of the blog a little...Ella's room has pink and brown bedding...so I thought her blog should match :) I'm sure I'll change my mind and change it again...but it was something fun to do today...

Hope you had a good weekend. We're hoping for the dossier to be sent to the Sec. of State tomorrow!

Slow progress

I turned in the dossier...but got a call on Thursday morning that the wording of a sentence on the second page of the VN application had to be changed. I scrambled around to fix it immediately and handed it in again last night. I talked to our director today to see if it would be sent out to the Secretary of State today...she was dealing with an "emergency" so she thought it wouldn't go out until Monday. Bummer! I'm trying to stay positive...we have a long wait ahead of us, but at least I know that once it's out of her hands, it's being worked on! Hopefully I can update on Monday to say it's been sent!

Happy Friday!

Dossier to Agency

Good news...I submitted the final papers of our dossier to our agency this morning!

Not so good news...our timeline has gotten much longer. It seems that the VN program has gotten more popular and the staff in Vietnam isn't large enough to handle all of the incoming paperwork. I'm crossing my fingers that they decide to hire more people :) (wishful thinking).

Anyway, as of yesterday, it looks like referral will take 5-6 months and travel with be an additional 4-5 months after that. We're keeping our fingers crossed that things move a little faster, but we don't want to get our hopes up.

In the meantime, my mom and I have been busy making baby bedding sets and we finally have our website up and running (there's a link to the right)!
It still needs some work - we're doing all new photos, but it's a beginning and it's keeping my mind on something other than the timeline :)

Stay Warm!

Dossier

Well, I just got off the phone with our agency and we are not going to drop off the dossier until Monday. She said she's out of the office this afternoon and if we come Monday we can sit down with her and go over it right away...which is probably better. Happy Friday!

6 DAYS!!!! It only took 6 DAYS!!!

We got the I-171H today...we were just fingerprinted on the 26th! It think that may be a new record! Boy, you'd think we just the referral we are so excited! I'm making photocopies of everything tonight and hopefully dropping our dossier off at our agency tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!

Ella, here we come :)